Call me an oddball, but I am passionate about stewardship. How we appreciate and use ALL the gifts that God has provided us will determine our happiness, our fulfillment and our ability to follow Jesus. And of all our gifts, it’s our money that most gets in the way of loving God with all we’ve got, and our neighbor as ourselves.
There can be no deep discipleship without stewardship that changes our relationship to wealth and possessions. Our culture teaches us to love wealth above all else — to cling to it, to see it as a source of power and security, and to hoard it. This is in direct opposition to our faith, which tells us to love God above all else, trusting in God’s power and security. This is why stewardship is such a hard topic in North American churches.
I work with churches to understand and change their money culture –the unspoken yet generally accepted principles that stifle the conversation about money. I teach strategies to break down the “wall of silence” about money, to help God’s people see their lives in terms of abundance rather than scarcity.
The goal is not merely to provide more money for God’s ministry, but also to free God’s people from harmful attitudes and habits that keep them from loving God fully, and their neighbor as themselves.
Since 2006 I have been an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. I currently serve as pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Aberdeen, MD. My earlier calls were as an assistant to the bishop of the Lower Susquehanna Synod (2013-2020) who specializes in congregational stewardship, and as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Arendtsville, Pa. (2006-2013).
Since 2003 I have worked as a writer and web content editor for the Stewardship of Life Institute, an ELCA-affiliated nonprofit corporation headquartered at United Lutheran Seminary, Gettysburg, Pa.
Since 2000 I have been a regular contributor and study guide editor for Living Lutheran magazine. From 1998-2000 I was a staff editor for Living Lutheran‘s predecessor publication, The Lutheran. And from 1981 to 1998 I worked as a reporter and editor at daily and weekly newspapers including The Cape Cod Times, The Boston Phoenix, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette and the Connecticut Post. My writing has also appeared in the Ford Foundation Report and Teaching Tolerance.
I hold a 1993 Master of Divinity degree from Boston University School of Theology, affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
The Stewardship Guy 